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Student Name Professor Name Subject 19 September 2012 The More Factor by Laurence Shames America has always been considered a country of unbound opportunities, the secret of the astonishing success of this comparatively young country was tried to be revealed by many politicians, sociologist and academics. Laurence Shames has never been involved into any of these prestigious activities, a former New York taxi driver, lounge singer, furniture mover, lifeguard, dishwasher, gym teacher, and shoe salesman, having become a famous American writer, he tried to reveal the reasons of the success and decline of his powerful motherland. Shames makes a few statements that at first glance seem to be too critical and generalized, but the author enforces his considerations with explicit examples. Thus, the writer claims that America, since the very beginning, has been a state that made people obsessed with the idea of getting more material goods. There were a few components that created the real American spirit; those were the awareness of the endless frontier, given opportunities and desire of more as the push for development. The shift of human values occurred in this newly built state; the ethic of success came to change the ethic of decency, when the result was much more important than the measures taken. It was more important to earn the fortune, enlarge the business and to expand than the ethic values of it. The developing country was booming and enlarging and this gave people endless opportunities to gain fortune and success. This more factor played the key role in the

Yourlastname 2 economic prosperity of the country. In America, a sense of quality has lagged far behind a sense of scale, says Shames in his article (Source 1). Laurence Shames makes a very vivid example when the scale became more important for Americans than the quality. In 1880 many people got involved into the construction speculations in Texas. They were investing enormously big sums of money to build new cities in the middle of the huge state where no one had been living before. They hired the employees to construct the main streets in the ghost towns, also churches, academies and opera houses, but no one wanted to live there in the places emerging from the thirst for money. This was done in order to attract big railroad companies to construct the railroads passing by these small cities. Such speculations were a great risk because the plan would have failed if the citizens left such town. Then no one would be willing to make a railroad to the ghost city without inhabitants. On the other hand, in case of success the investor gained millions in a country obsessed with expanding and growing. The speculators could bribe people and use unlawful means to achieve their goal. That was not important which strategy a person chose on the way to success. The habit of more enrooted so deeply in the minds of the Americans that it became a common way of thinking. The author also mentions that these speculators were the great optimists. Optimism became a part of the culture as America was a state of the endless opportunities. Everyone could achieve success in this country; even those who failed once could always get the second chance. Apart from fair laws and accountable government, this country could offer more to its citizens and the newcomers. This was the land. The endless frontier of America was promising for everyone and optimism became a national characteristic. The land itself the endless plains and the highest rocks of the state, created the idea of unlimited opportunities that this country gave.

Yourlastname 3 This gave America a great privilege over the old European countries with all their lands fully occupied. The author agrees with Franklin who wrote that America gave people unique chances to succeed when in Europe the one born in poverty died needy. The Americans were not afraid to take the risk, to make hazardous investments, because the new state was so large and various that once you lost in one place, you could start from the very beginning in the other corner of the country. This optimism finally resulted in an economic boost. Though, the problem was that the way the American society was obsessed with growing and expanding lacked the ethic values. The growing scale was itself the purpose of development. Therefore, the way the enlargement took place could not be favourable for the states economy. The writer states: Expansion could remain a goal unto itself, and would continue to generate a value system based on bulk rather than on nuance, on quantities of money rather than on quality of life, on "progress" itself rather than on a sense of what the progress was for (Source 1). Shames proves his words with statistics figures. Providing the decreasing numbers of the productivity growth in the private sector, he claims that the diminishment of the more factor caused the economic decline. Laurence Shames concludes that the American society started realizing the vanity of this senseless obsession for more material well-being without any ethical values and believes. In order to make the growth sustainable, the revaluation of purposes of the growing and developing should be made in the American society.

Yourlastname 4 Works Cited Shames, Laurence. The More Factor. Available at: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/shames.txt